"It's a very difficult area to get right because Irish players can lose out. But Rocky Elsom helped us win a Heineken Cup and he was massive for us; sometimes without the foreign players, you don't have that fully finished squad."

CJ van der Linde

"Really nice bloke. I think a lot of the lads genuinely felt sorry for him. From the outside it is difficult to see, it's: 'ah, here's this guy who's not playing, getting paid a lot of money, sure isn't he having the time of his life'. It's not like that: you go through so much frustration when you're injured."

Eddie O'Sullivan

"I didn't have much of a relationship with him but there was never any animosity. He gave me my first cap and my first Six Nations start and I give him a huge amount of credit and thanks for that."

Michael Cheika

"I had a mixed relationship with Checks. Sometimes it was good; I think maybe he still considered me as that young teenager who owed him quite a bit. But he is a brilliant coach and I would have no problem playing under him again."

Girvan Dempsey

"I learnt so much from Girvan, whose positioning was brilliant. Girvan has 82 caps for a reason, not because he was a 'solid' player -- he was a brilliant full-back. That's the point that people get away from and lose sight of at times."